


A Naga's Crush

by CardboarianNights



Series: Snek!Jack AU [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Flirting, M/M, Mutual Pining, Snake hybrid!Jack, ambushing the guy who's the leader of a paramilitary organization is not safe for a lot of people, ana is like 'oh my god you two!', basically it's 'i have a crush on you let's wrestle right here and now', courtship rituals, gabe is totally on board with this courtship thing, human!Gabe, it just so happens it's NEVER Gabe, it's not a creepy stalking fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 16:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12063192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CardboarianNights/pseuds/CardboarianNights
Summary: Just after the end of the Omnic Crisis, Gabriel Reyes hires on a naga (snake/human hybrid) named Jack Morrison to the fledgling Overwatch team. Jack is an excellent soldier but has one problem that affects all male nagas: Ambushing and other aggressive tactics are how his species courts a potential mate.Ana is horrified.Gabriel is MORE than okay with this arrangement!





	A Naga's Crush

“You know… I thought snakes were the masters of ambush.” Gabriel deadpanned as he saw Jack Morrison, a naga (human-snake hybrid), caught upside down in the brush above the picnic table he and Ana were eating lunch at. The brush was an ideal place to ambush Gabriel as well since it was on a ledge three feet above the table area and the sound of him rustling around in them could easily be covered by the construction constantly on-going in the area. Jack just fucked up by getting his tail caught up in it and was now hopelessly dangling half over the ledge, his head at eye level with Gabriel as the human takes another bite from his sandwich.

Jack’s pretty blue eyes are narrowed into a glare, his pupils constricting like that of a snake’s as he thrashed to dislodge his tail from the brush. The naga was a new addition to the fledgling Overwatch since the Omnic Crisis ended literally last week. Naga were extremely rare to find in any formal military setting simply because their society was loosely organized, and males had a rather… aggressive way of expressing courtship desires. Assuming that was what Jack was doing and not flat out trying to kill Gabriel when he had his back turned.

“Fuck you.” Jack huffed in embarrassment as he curled himself upwards, literally pulling himself up his tail and showing off some impressive abdominal work to get back up the ledge. 

Gabriel munched slowly on his sandwich as he watched the entertaining feat at the picnic table with Ana as she slowly put her side arm back into its holster. She was still wary of the naga even after Gabriel tried to reassure her that he didn’t feel threatened by his attack a moment ago by covering her hand with his own to keep her from raising her firearm. She waited until Jack slipped away back into the brush and the obnoxious rustling ceased before resuming her conversation with Gabriel.

“I don’t care if you find his behavior amusing, Gabriel, he is literally trying to get at your neck when you least expect it!” Ana argued before she resumed eating her split pea soup on her lunch tray, eyeing the brush suspiciously on the ledge above.

“He’s not going to use the same tactic twice, Ana, it would be a huge turn off for any member of his race.” Gabriel explained as he finished up his sandwich and took a long drink from his water bottle. “Also, he hasn’t even came close to getting at my neck this entire time and has never once tried this shit on a mission or during battle simulations. He’s the perfect soldier with one really large flaw that I can easily overlook if he’s solely gunning for me.” Gabriel reassured her as he set down his water bottle and moved onto his own bowl of split pea soup. Ana looked anything but reassured as she stared at him completely unamused.

“Alright, but what about everyone else around you? What about collateral damage? People can get hurt, Gabriel, and they’re not super soldiers who can just shrug it off!”

Gabriel paused for a second to consider that and frowned, lowering the spoon full of soup he was about to bring to his mouth. “Come on, Ana. He’s... mindful of his surroundings?” Okay, he was reaching with this one but come on! There’s not much of an adrenaline rush coming from doing paperwork these days with the fighting being over. Gabriel was bored as fuck!

“Okay. Let’s change it around a little then. What if someone were to misinterpret Jack’s intentions and shoot him to protect you?” Ana rephrased coolly as she picked up her cup of tea. “You are the leader of an paramilitary organization, Gabriel. No one should be attacking you nor expect these attacks to be normal enough not to pull a gun on Jack.”

Gabriel grumbled as brought a spoonful of the soup to his mouth and swallowed. “Fine. I’ll tell him to tone it down.”

“Or you’ll fire him from the organization.”

“Or I’ll fire him from the organization.” He parroted Ana’s words, however annoyed he was at the prospect of letting a perfectly good, yet flawed, soldier go simply so Jack wouldn’t be killed by a misunderstanding of all things.

This was going to be awkward as hell but Ana was completely right, as usual. Time to bring him in for a formal talk in his office.

\--

“Wait. Captain Amari said that?”

Jack looked down at Gabriel after he managed to pin the super soldier face down to the ground in his office, the desk completely overturned but luckily nothing but low-priority paperwork scattered across the floor since Gabriel had the foresight to literally push all of his furniture to the wall and put his valuables in the closet before calling Jack in. He attacked Gabriel at the first opportunity, as expected, and Gabriel was more than game for some impromptu close-quarters-combat drills. He managed to pull the naga out of his headspace after wearing him down with some swift grabbling tricks that were considered playing dirty, but CQC wasn’t really developed with the opponent having no legs in mind.

“Yeah. Gotta be much more careful about where and when you ambush me, Morrison.” Gabriel huffed as he squirmed lightly in the coils holding his body in a rather awkward manner, making Gabriel thankful that he asked Jack to lock the door on the way in. No one needed to see him looking like a ragdoll in the naga’s coils while they casually talked business in the weird hold. “You know I could give a fuck less but it does look bad when you’re throwing yourself at me whenever you get the chance.”

Jack frowned at that as he released his hold on Gabriel’s arms that he managed to pinned to Gabriel’s back with his hands and brought a hand up to run through his blonde locks. He looked troubled, as usual, when dealing with these kinds of things. “That makes me look less impressive though.” He admitted sheepishly as he looked away from Gabriel, slipping away from his commander’s body so he could coil his huge, muscular tail around himself and rest his arms on it beside Gabriel on the ground.

Gabriel sat up on the floor, crossing one leg over the other as he brought his arm behind his head to stretch it out with a groan. “Look, I get it, you’re trying to show me that you’re hot shit and I’m flattered by the attention but everyone else thinks you’re a bomb ready to go off, Morrison. We’re going to have to change the rules of your playbook a bit so no one is drawing a gun on you when you try to pull a take down on me if I walk the compound in the middle of the night.”

Jack nodded his head as he rested his chin on his arms, looking rather put off at the idea of having to restrain himself. “I guess if I have to.” He grumbled like a child being scolded rather than an adult that killed people for a living.

Gabriel sighed as he released his hold on his arms and let both of them drop forward onto his lap. “Morrison. You know I know you aren’t going to kill me much less draw blood on purpose, alright? But, we need to lower the randomness of these encounters a bit or I’ll have to fire you.”

That got Jack’s attention quickly as his eyes widened and he lifted his head off his arms. “Wait. What?!”

Gabriel quirked an unimpressed brow at Jack’s surprise. “Seriously? Getting fired is worse than someone shooting you?”

Jack parroted Gabriel’s facial expression. “That’s part of the job description.”

Now Gabriel was seriously scowling at him. “Friendly fire isn’t something we’re encouraging here, Morrison. You either work out something with me now or I have to give you a ticket back to the US. Your choice.”

Jack’s gaze turned to something almost skeptical as he looked at Gabriel for a long moment. “You’re not going to ask me to stop courting you instead?”

Gabriel sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “I wouldn’t have approved of bringing you on board if I didn’t extensively read up on naga culture and biology plus your own psychological profile, Morrison. You know when it’s okay to have that switch of yours flipped and when it's time to suppress every fiber of your being that wants you to show off how great you are at what you do. I can deal with your drive to impress me through any means necessary but we really have to draw a line here and we have to do it now, Morrison.” He reaffirmed, making sure Jack knew how serious he was about this and he wasn’t just playing around anymore. “You either work with me or go home.”

Jack frowned but nodded his head in reluctant agreement. “Fine. What are your ideas?”

\--

“GABRIEL REYES!!” 

Ana Amari yelled as she came stomping towards the two fucking morons who were grappling with each other on the ground while a crowd of Overwatch personnel watched them literally try to rip flimsy white t-shirts off each other. 

Jack obviously had the added advantage of having talons for nails, but Gabriel was very good at using his super soldier strength to break free of half-assed holds as long as Jack didn’t disable him from using his legs with his tail. Reinhardt and Torbjorn were laughing and hooting with the crowd as they watched the spectacle unfolding between the Strike Commander and the naga.

The crowd let out a roar when Gabriel broke out of a grappling hold and hauled Morrison over his shoulder with a growl before throw him down hard to the ground. Gabriel then went down quick to pin Morrison’s hands above his head as he straddled the naga’s waist. Jack was dazed for a moment from the rough landing, allowing Gabriel ample time to tear off the right sleeve of the thin cotton t-shirt before Jack rolled them to get the upper hand and quickly tried to secure Gabriel with his tail. The crowd was hooting and hollering as they both fought for dominance, trying to get in a tear or pulling at a ripped seam to worsen the state of the fabric on each other when they weren’t trying to restrain the other’s arms. 

“It’s a contest of strength and trickery, Ana! Come watch with us!” Reinhardt laughed out loud as he gestured for her to quickly stand next to him while he had a prime spot to the fight. 

Ana sighed heavily, finding this to be a somewhat better alternative to Jack attacking Gabriel from the shadows but only SOMEWHAT since they were acting like college frat boys on Spring Break in Cancun, Mexico.

She walked over to join Reinhardt and watched as the two tossed and turned in the dirt, laughing and having a good old time while the crowd was rowdy and pleased with the display of strength put on by their Strike Commander. Ana felt a bit relieved to see a smile on Gabriel’s face as he managed to roll himself out of Jack’s attempt to wrap his tail around his legs once more, enjoying this little game between him and Jack without worry of harm coming to his soldier.

Gabriel was a stubborn man but apparently he managed to work something out with Jack to keep him on the team after that debacle during lunch where she almost shot Jack for ambushing them outside. She would still need to pull both men aside separately and figure out what the game plan was from each of their points of view to make sure everyone was on the same page but this seemed like a fine start to a more civil approach to Jack’s courtship dance that Gabriel enjoyed moving to. Ana then frowned as she thought about the deeper implications to this whole song and dance; Was Gabriel just toying with Jack or was he serious about being courted by the naga that he only knew for a week?

The alternative, that he was just playing with Jack, sounded entirely too cruel even if Jack wanted to indulge in the game for once with someone who wasn’t his species. 

But, then again, Gabriel DID historically have a weakness for cute blondes…

The fight came to a draw when it was interrupted by the timer Gabriel’s set on his phone, Reinhardt holding it up in the air. “Time is up!” He declared loudly, much to the disappointment of the crowd.

“This is bullshit!” One of the cooks scoffed as he turned away and left with the others, the betting pool canceled due to the draw being announced. Ana had to contain her amusement with the situation as she stepped forward, watching as the sweaty and dirt-caked men were laughing as they tried to untangle from each other.

“I said lift your other leg, Gabriel! H-how hard is it to listen to simple instructions?!” Jack cackled as he pounded his fist into the dirt, tears rolling down his cheeks as Gabriel was literally letting out a plethora of ugly snorts that wasn’t helping the situation at all.

“Your tail is caught in my shirt, you cheating asshole! Hands only!” Gabriel laughed as he pushed the end of Jack’s tail out of his shirt, finally falling to the dirt in clumsy pile of limbs as he couldn’t stop laughing.

Ana had to admit that they looked like they had a lot of fun with the whole thing - a good de-stresser for both of them with the crisis declared over and no more fighting in the foreseeable future. Their shirts were an absolute mess though but neither one of them was torn apart where the body of the shirt would be declared destroyed for a win on either side. Oh well, as long as they both paid for those weak undershirts then there’s no problem here in them vent in a safe, competitive environment. She smiled as she crouched down between them, her arms resting on her knees as she looked them both over - nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises, a lot better than what it used to be before she had that talk with Gabriel. Okay... Maaaaybe a few cuts here and there before wasn’t so bad but it was an annoyance to have to bleach the hallways to OSHA standards to prevent blood contamination all the time.

“Having fun, you two?” She asked with warmth in her voice as the two idiots slowly got their breaths back under control but their smiles still affixed to their faces.

“Hi, Captain.” Jack waved lazily at her, laying on his back with his blond-scaled tail looking like an enormous limp spaghetti noodle as it laid over Gabriel’s lower back while the other man was face down trying to cease his wheezing. “I think I broke the Strike Commander.” He chuckled weakly as he gestured towards Gabriel with his thumb.

Ana snickered as she regarded Gabriel’s current disposition with an amused smile on her face when she saw how relaxed he was while he continued to gasp for breath. “It takes a lot to wear down a super soldier, Morrison.” She responded fondly. “Any particular reason you two decided on tearing each other’s shirts off?”

Jack chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck, Ana found this relaxed version of Jack to be much more preferable to the terror that was the naga who stalked Gabriel from the shadows. If their alternative was childish strength competitions then she would have absolutely no problem approving of it, especially if it unwounded both men in the process.

“It’s… ‘manly’?” Jack offered as he shrugged his shoulders, looking a bit perplexed even though he was the one who said it - meaning that Gabriel was the one who proposed this particular activity. 

Oh, this was getting better and better by the minute.

“You two are precious.” Ana admitted fondly while Gabriel turned his head to the side, scowled up at her and raised his hand up to flip her off as he rolled onto his back. “Love you too, Gabriel.” She teased him playfully in return.

Gabriel grumbled and let his arm flop back down to his side as he sighed. Jack chuckled in amusement as he slid his tail off of Gabriel and coiled it around himself so he could rest his arms on it. Only then did Gabriel sit up and look at Jack almost enviously as the naga relaxed on his tail, looking like he was in the middle of one big comfortable coil. “Got to ask but do you ever get cramps taking naps on your tail like that?”

Jack looked at Gabriel skeptically for a moment before thinking about it. “Well… kind of if I sleep too long? Naga are suppose to coil up to sleep, after all.” He explained the best he could before pausing. “Unless they have a partner but then…”

“‘They’ what?” Ana gently encouraged him, enjoying the light flush that colored Jack’s cheeks as he looked off to the side.

“Wrap around them for warmth…” Jack bashfully answered as he seemed to coil his tail around himself tighter and try to sink down in the middle to hide. An absolutely adorable reaction in Ana’s opinion but she refrained from teasing. 

With that said and done, Ana got up and left the two to chat a bit longer in the grass. Gabriel knew better than to neglect his work so she could possibly keep the UN off his back for a half an hour longer. Ana found herself happy for Gabriel and was eager to see how things would progress between them with the surprise attacks culled from the list of things Jack could do to woo the strike commander. What other kind of fun things awaited them in this new era for Overwatch?

\--

Jack Morrison was born for combat - an expert with the pulse rifle and much faster and meaner than you would think a naga capable considering they are a ‘shy’ hybrid race. The record keepers even had to re-evaluate how they mark someone as ‘clearing’ particular obstacle courses on the Zurich HQ grounds due to his ability to find the easiest loophole through any training obstacle unless it was literally a vertical wall climb with no rope to help haul himself upwards. Because of that, legless hybrids were now considered ‘cleared’ for a timed course when their waist crossed the finish line and Jack was pissed as all hell when his records were smashed thoroughly overnight by a dragon hybrid due to the new rules.

“Fuck off!” Jack hissed as Gabriel followed him around the compound with his eye on the datapad in his hand and the other one the irritated naga.

“Nah. I’d rather you tell me what’s bothering you.” Gabriel brushed off his cuss like it was nothing as he tapped away on his datapad to reply to an email.

“Nothing’s bothering me!” Jack replied way too quickly, very much proving that he was bothered by something to the point he was scaring everyone who passed by him in the base - a concern he quickly helped relieved by following the naga throughout the complex. 

Gabriel would rather deal with Jack directly than waiting for it to escalate to the point where they would be forced to get him involved anyways, something that would easily lead to the naga’s death due to how paranoid everyone was of him - or at least that’s at least what his mind was telling him in the worst case scenario. 

Better safe than sorry, right?

Jack stopped in his tracks and Gabriel paused as well as the naga turned to glare at him over his shoulder, wearing a nice blue tracksuit jumper that hugged his muscles, especially those biceps of his, in such an appealing way. “The new rules are bullshit!” He vented as he threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

Gabriel lowered his datapad and quirked a brow at Jack as he did the naga-equivalent of pacing around him while Gabriel stood in place. Jack was pretty much fuming out of his ears as he slithered circles around Gabriel, grumbling ‘fuck Shimada’ this and ‘fuck Athena’ that and Gabriel was having a hard time not laughing his ass off over how petty this guy could get. “Come on, Morrison. It’s just numbers on a scoreboard.”

Jack responded by quickly snapping his head in Gabriel’s direction as he came to a halt, absolutely livid. “My options for impressing you severely got cut in half and now the damned AI thinks that it alright to erase all of my hard work to make it to the top of the leaderboards!”

Gabriel leaned away and waited for Jack to calm down now that he vented his frustrations. “Jack. Seriously?” He asked in a serious manner.

Jack frowned as he looked away and sighed in disappointment with himself. “I worked really hard for those scores, alright?” He leveled with Gabriel as he rubbed the back of his neck in shame.

“I know, Jack, but Athena has a point that it’s not exactly fair that your anatomy allows you to overcome obstacles in a way humans and other bipeds cannot dream of competing at.” He tried to explain to Jack but the naga seemed too hurt to really want to hear that from Gabriel.

“It’s fine, Gabe. I’ll get over it some day, I guess.” Jack huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as he glanced away from the leaderboard.

“You ‘guess’?” Gabriel repeated skeptically, following the naga as he resumed moving down the hallway and head towards the dorms.

“Are you going to follow me all day?” Jack halted to turn and scowl at Gabriel. “Don’t you have more important things to do, Gabriel?”

Gabriel paused at that and nodded his head. “Yeah, but I want to make sure you’re okay before I go back to work.”

“Well, I’m fine now, alright? I just needed to vent.”

“Alright. You where my office is if you need me, okay?”

Jack rolled his eyes but nodded his head in understanding. “I’m going to nap it off. See you, Gabe.”

“Bye, Jack.” Gabriel waved with one hand, waiting for Jack to disappear around the corner to the dorms before turning and heading back to his office on the other side of the base.

Jack would come to him if he felt like talking more or just wanted to wrestle the frustration off. 

\--

Jack blinked in confusion as he slid open the door to his room and found several small boxes of various sizes and colors, some wrapped with elaborate ribbon designs while others were wrapped with red wrapping paper. Looking down the hall, Jack saw there were other such boxes in front of a few other people’s doors as well and remembered what holiday it was today: Valentine’s day. He was only wearing a loose T-shirt over his chest since he just woke up, planning on grabbing some food before changing into his work uniform for the day until this pleasant surprise was sprung on him. 

There were five boxes in total as he reached down and gathered them all in his arms, closing the door to his room behind him as he slid over to his desk to lay them down. His heart was racing as he picked up one at a time, opening up the boxes because no one would be dumb enough to leave their signatures on the little card provided in such a gossipy environmen-

‘To: Jack

From: Gabe’

Jack laughed.

Ana was pulling his fucking tail or maybe that new kid that Gabriel picked up that was a huge pain in the ass to the Strike Commander. He set that box aside for later, expecting there to be those plastic snakes to shoot out if he opened up the box since it was an obvious as fuck trap by an amateur. Valentine’s Day was a great day for assholeish pranks like that, after all.

He start by opening up the nicest looking box, even if it was kind of on the small side. Jack delicately pulled the lovely red ribbon off and set it off to the side, lifting up the lid to take out the card resting on top of the paper chocolate covering.

‘From: Reinhardt

To: Jack’

Okay, not unusual since the big guy did a lot lately to help bring Jack more into their group. He put the lid back on the box and placed the card on top of it before putting it to the side. Jack then pulled up the showy vertical box that was hand wrapped, figuring this one might be the one from Gabriel as he carefully began to unwrap it. Inside was a crudely carved serpent adorably holding a heart delicately in its coil. Jack felt himself smile at the lovely token as he gently turned it in his hand, glancing at the bottom to see if there was a signature on such a nice gift.

‘From: Fareeha

To: Jack’

Oh! The littlest Amari made him such a nice handcraft since she was taking lessons from Torbjorn on wood carving! She really was improving at such an impressive rate! Jack carefully set the carving off to the side with a fond smile before pulling the next box in front of him that was a lot more like your usual store bought chocolates. This one was from Ana, while the next one ended up being from someone he never heard of… Maybe a secret admirer?

Jack didn’t think much of it as he was rather disappointed that Gabriel didn’t get him anything. He popped up his chin on his hand as he rested his elbow on the desk, tracing the nice ribbon that came with Reinhardt’s box before suspiciously eyeing the unopened box from ‘Gabe’ he left on the side.

This was a fucking trap.

Someone was toying with his obvious infatuation with the Strike Commander to get at him.

Yes, he understood that many people did not like naga’s aggressive advances and that Gabriel certainly had many admirers from afar with how hot-as-fuck he was. Surely one of them would be cowardly enough to get his hopes up and get a laugh at his expense as well. Jack is a super proud naga and Gabriel was one of the first humans who allowed him to go full out to impress him, even if they had to dramatically tone it down afterwards. To say he was very fond of his commander would be an underestimation for how much he has come to enjoy Gabriel’s companionship over these past six month.

Still… What if Gabriel WANTED to make a statement and wasn’t afraid of the consequences anymore…?

\--

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, JESSE MCCREEE!!” 

Gabriel almost dropped the box of chocolates he was stealthly trying to hide in a box under a pile of dvds Jack loaned him, coming out of his own dorm room to hear Jack’s roaring declaration of war on Gabriel’s newest and youngest agent working under him. Jesse was only seventeen years old but they were still in the process of ironing out his immature antics…

Jesse was crying as he ran like a bat out of hell towards him, a very pissed off and probably-rightly-so Jack darting faster than Gabriel had ever seen him move outside of combat/training exercises. McCree almost knocked Gabriel over as he turned sharply around and clung to Gabriel from behind like a scared, little kid than a seventeen year old who was terrifying with a six-shooter. As much as he hated the idea of Jesse not get what he had coming to him for whatever he did to piss off Jack, he couldn’t let Jack maul him to death either.

“Jack! HALT!” Gabriel commanded in his most authoritative voice possible, startling the naga as he slid to a halt but did so too late as he plowed right into Gabriel.

Dvds went flying into the air along with the box of chocolate while Jack, Jesse and Gabriel got tangled up in a pile all over the floor. Jesse scrambled out of the pile quicker than a rabbit and fled for his life, tossing his commander a ‘sorry, Boss!!’ as he high tailed it out of there. Gabriel groaned as his back pain was real this time, and he was completely tangled up in Jack’s tail on top of it. Jack pushed himself up, very much dazed from the impact as he checked his surroundings on what the fuck just happened before noticing Gabriel’s plight and worked quickly to unravel his tail from Gabe’s body.

There was shit scattered everywhere and Jack was quick to find the box to start placing the dvds back inside. “Shit! I’m so sorry, Gabe!” Jack apologized as he scrambled to get it all back together before realizing they were HIS dvds. “Oh? You were bringing them back today? Did you get to watch them?” He asked curiously with a smile as he watched Gabriel sit up on the floor.

“Well, I don’t have a dvd player so I just bought the titles digitally, as much as a pain it was to find these naga movies legally. I started watching the war drama just this morning, actually.” Gabriel chuckled before his eyes landed on an overturned box that was HIS Valentine’s gift to Jack and glanced further down the hall to find all six of the chocolate-shaped hollowed rodents to be scattered all over the floor in pieces. “Fuck!”

“What?” Jack slid up beside him as finished putting all the dvds into the box and moved the container under one arm. His eyes followed Gabriel’s gaze to see the large overturned box plus the chocolate-shaped rats shattered and spread all over the carpet down the hall. “Oh. I didn’t mean to- how much did it cost for you to buy those? Were they for Fareeha?” He asked, feeling completely guilty as he set down the box he was holding, pluck up the toppled over box and tried to get all the bits back into the box to clean up the mess. 

“Jack, you don’t have to repay me for it. I bought it for you.” Gabriel grumbled as he got up and helped Jack pick up the bigger chunks with one hand while dialing for clean up assistance on his phone in the other hand. “If anything, I’ll just go to the store and get you another box. It’s no big deal.”

Jack frowned as he looked at the cute rat designs of the hollow chocolates displayed when he picked up the bottom of the box. He couldn’t read the language that was printed on the box so he assumed Gabriel had to order these in advance to get them in time for Valentine’s Day. 

His culture didn’t celebrate Valentine's Day but a common gift given to a romantic partner, between nagas, was roasted or caramelized rodents - probably something Gabriel was trying to imitate here but without offending any of the humans and anima that lived on the base with them?

Jack popped the chocolate into his mouth, regardless of germs or Gabriel's horrifying gag in disgust as Jack chewed on the deliciousness and frowned when Gabriel immediately pulled the box out of his hand. 

“What the fuck, Jack?! It’s suppose to be a ‘three’ second rule not a five minute one!” Gabriel hissed, stubbornly shoving Jack away with his shoulder whenever Jack made a go to pick up another shattered piece from the floor. Jack narrowed his eyes at Gabriel and answered back by practically lunging at the next piece Gabriel went to pick up to start up a fucking petty ass war with his commander by shoving it defiantly into his mouth. “YOU FUCKING SHIT! NO YOU FUCKING DONT!”

Gabriel tackled Jack to the ground when he went to lunge for the next chocolate bit, Jack hissing loudly in protest from being attacked from behind, dvds cases going flying back into the air, as he went instinctively for the death roll to restrain Gabriel and try to flip their positions. “Fuck you, Gabe! I’m not eating store-bought chocolate!”

“Oh my god, Jack Morrison! You’re worse than a fucking dog with plastic in its mouth!” Gabriel growled as a crowd was starting to gather around in amusement as the two wrestled on the ground, chocolate staining their clothing when they rolled over several pieces in their fight for dominance.

“Children!”

Gabriel and Jack immediately stopped fighting, tangled up in each other as they looked up at the terror that was Ana Amari when she didn’t get her full eight hours of sleep. She glared down at them, her bed-head worse than Torbjorn’s if he didn’t braid up his hair or beard before going to sleep, and refused to restrain her discontent behind a smile for once. Jack buried his face under Gabriel’s chin to ‘hide’ from her and leave Gabriel flustered and ‘alone’ to her fury.

“I REALLY hope the obligation chocolates you both gave me were worth all this trouble because I am very much not in the mood for your bullshit this early in the morning.” Ana simply stated, Jack trembling at her quiet fury even though he wasn’t looking at her while Gabriel tanked her glare for the both of them.

They both were forced to walk around with signs hanging from their necks that said ‘I’m a bother’ for the rest of the day to humiliate them under threat of being sleep darted if they attempted to take them off.

Gabriel ended up buying Jack a nice brand of store-bought chocolates and gave it to him later in the evening with Jack accepting them without much of a fuss this time.

\--

In the end, even with all of their concessions and watered-down naga courtship shenanigans, Gabriel Reyes was ‘forcefully’ made to accept Jack Morrison’s feelings when Jack’s birthday came around and the entire team forced an intervention to get Gabriel to stop playing around. All the old guard members of the strike team gave Gabriel each a token of their appreciation for agreeing to confess to the naga in the form of restaurant gift cards so Gabriel would take Jack to some place off base once and awhile. Gabriel dressed up in his usual hoodie and jeans as he walked his way over to Jack’s room, knocking on the door as he made quick checks to make sure the gift cards were lining his wallet.

“Oh! Hey, Gabe!” Jack smiled as he opened the door, wearing one of the new ‘overwatch’ hoodies they got distributed to them this week since the Overwatch swag went on-sale to the public as a test for merchandising to fund certain small operations on the base.

“Happy birthday, Jack. You ready to get going?” Gabriel couldn’t help but smile as the naga nodded his head in excitement.

“Of course! It will be my first time off base for recreational-based activities!” He yelled excitedly.

“I’m taking you on a date, Dumbass, stop trying to act cute.” Gabriel dead-panned, getting an amused laugh from Jack as he relented.

“Alright, alright! Let’s get going!” Jack came out into the hallway and locked his door up before the two of them moved together to the military garage to sign out on one of the cars, Gabriel holding the door wide open so Jack could get into the back seat of the jeep, as awkward as it was with his huge ass tail. Once he had Jack buckled in, he hopped into the front of the car, buckled up himself and took off as Jack rolled the window down. 

Gabriel turned on the radio to a classic rock station, glancing at Jack’s reflection in the driver’s side mirror - the naga resting his chin on his folded arms on the window as the breeze lightly played with his short blonde hair and watching as the scenery went by with an odd curiosity. “You not get out of the base much, Jackie?” He asked curiously as he turned down the radio a bit.

“No. My contract with the military says that I can't leave the premise without a guardian or some shit.” Jack remarked with a heavy sigh that weighed down heavily on Gabriel's heart to hear. “My body isn't built for easy access for many forms of public transportation and naga are so rarely seen in hybrid cities that it make people nervous.”

Gabriel frowned at that, and understood why naga were so rarely integrated into society if Jack’s courtship habits were any indication of why society would shun them outside of the military. He guessed that maybe he was just very confident in his abilities that he never really minded Jack’s hot-blooded advances. His fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly for a moment as he considered the possibility that they might not even be allowed into any restaurants because of Jack being a naga. Maybe it would be a better idea to grab some cooking shit at the supermarket and go find a park someplace to make him dinner himself.

“I really appreciate you wanting to take me out on a date for my birthday, Gabe! You don't have to worry about me acting out or anything.” Jack smiled reassuringly, helping to relieve Gabriel just a little bit that Jack wasn’t being too hard on himself about his situation. He’ll do something later to get Jack more off-base privileges when he goes back to work tomorrow first thing in the morning, that was for fucking certain.

“So, what do you feel like eating tonight?” Gabriel asked to help lighten the mood. “Chinese? Italian? Seafood? Steak? The world is your oyster bucket tonight, Jackie!” 

Jack hummed at that for a good while before Gabriel came to a stop at a stoplight. “Um… can we go to a hotel? Last time I went to one as a kid I remember it having amazing food.” He sheepishly asked, making Gabriel wonder if he wanted an excuse to have sex before glancing over in the driver’s side mirror to see a look of barely contained excitement on Jack’s face. The naga was serious about thinking hotel food was the pinnacle of culinary perfect… 

Oh my god.

“How bout this, Jackie? I’ll treat you to dinner and a nice hotel tonight.” Gabriel proposed easily, unable to not smile as Jack lifted his head up to grin from ear to ear.

“Seriously?!” Jack asked in amazement.

“Of course! It’s your birthday and our first date! Why wouldn’t I spoil you?” Gabriel found himself snickering before turning his eyes back to the road when the light turned green. “So, what do you want for dinner?”

“Barbeque!” Jack answered enthusiastically.

“Sounds good. Any particulars? Southwest? Korean?” 

Jack had a blank expression on his face when Gabriel asked for clarification, striking Gabriel as being way too damn cute on the naga for how manly they both were. This was going to be a much better night than Gabriel was expecting it to be if it was going to be filled with him seeing Jack experiencing many of his ‘firsts’. “I have options?”

“Eh. Let’s see if there’s any Korean places around here that do that.” Gabriel spoke as he pulled off into a supermarket parking lot, parked his car, and pulled out his phone to start doing some quick googling for restaurants around Zurich.

\--

The gift cards were pretty much forgotten as they found a nice Korean place, Gabriel and Jack eagerly heading inside together and happy to find that the restaurant was accommodating to hybrids. They had to wait an hour for a proper table to open up and Gabriel found it rather cute to see Jack flush while two hosts walked with them, carefully over Jack’s tail, with a red line of rope between the two of them so that no one would accidentally step on his tail or trip over it. The two hosts left when they seated Jack and Gabriel at a hybrid corner booth; Gabriel sitting down on the side with a chair while Jack sat across from him in a more spacious spot on a large flat pillow and his tail coiled around himself tightly so he could comfortably sit up at the table.

Jack looked excited as he looked at the grill embedded into the center of the table, eagerly looking through the menu after it was handed to him by the host that led them to the table in the first place. Gabriel was relieved that Jack seemed so excited by the atmosphere and how many other hybrids were around eating with human companions. It was nice to know that there was likely a community of hybrids that lived in the area to the point where restaurants had table accommodations for them. He was definitely going to drive Jack out here again when they had more free time and maybe see if there was a community center they could do activities without Overwatch breathing down their necks.

“So, we grill our own food here, right?” Jack asked curiously as he lowered his menu a bit towards the table so he could see Gabriel. Any anxiety or hesitation he had earlier in the jeep was completely gone, much to Gabriel’s relief.

“Yeah, you can eat some of the meat raw if you want to, by the way.” Gabriel remarked with a reassuring smile as he lowered his own menu. “So long as it’s not pork or something that would be safer to eat if you cook it a bit.”

Jack seemed a bit embarrassed by that, probably realizing that Gabriel knew the reason why Jack always took every meal back to his own room. Swallowing things, like raw meat, whole would probably make quite a few people squeamish on principle and Gabriel could understand his desire for privacy. People already looked at Jack enough with wary eyes that they didn’t need further reason to pull away from him because of his natural eating habits.

“It looks like they serve meat in flat strips or thin chunks from the pictures here.” Jack chuckled sheepishly. “I think I’ll be fine eating most of it cooked on the grill anyways. They do season meats here, right?” He asked curiously as he glanced down at his menu, bringing a hand up to idly scratch at his chin in thought.

“Pretty sure you can ask for it plain and just order some side sauce to dip it in if you think it might upset your stomach.”

“Right, right. We don’t have to cook the rice, right?”

“Probably not. I think they’ll do it for you if you ask them but they’ll probably take it to the kitchen, I guess. I’ve never been to a Korean Barbeque place before. All I know is that they bring everything you’ll need to make your dishes and you cook it yourself.” Gabriel remarked. “Any idea what you’ll order?”

Jack hummed at that, before glancing up at Gabriel curiously. “Maybe just the grilled beef? What about you?”

“Ribs!” Gabriel declared proudly, making Jack sputter at how out-of-character Gabriel was when he announced it, making both of them laugh for a good moment. It felt so natural to want to make Jack laugh and have a good time when they were at an energetic place like this restaurant. It felt domestic and civilian in a lot of good ways, making Gabriel happy that he decided to take Jack out for dinner rather than staying on base for his birthday.

The waitress came back and took their orders for dinner along with their drinks, both soldiers opting for korean beer to go with the flow. They handed their menus to the waitress and thanked her before she left them be, Jack turning to look back at Gabriel with an award-winning grin that had Gabriel’s heart running like he was running sprints. He smiled back at Jack as he folded his arms on the table, feeling happier than he felt in months just coming out here with his friend.

He was going to do it. This time for sure! It was the perfect atmosphere and day to tell Jack about his feelings for him, that he wanted to be with him too!

They drank and ate in merriment for the occasion, both switching to soft drink after their second bottles of beer so they wouldn’t do something stupid like crash the jeep. Jack seemed to have the most fun with cooking the food, asking Gabriel to the point of teasing him if he thought a particular slab of meat was cooked enough before serving it to him. Jack even allowed Gabriel to feed him a slice of meat and receive the same treatment in return before they both laughed happily at acting like a couple that was sickeningly in love.

The bill was a bit expensive when it came time for Gabriel to pay but at least Jack didn’t fight him over it, knowing full well it was Gabriel’s treat for his birthday. They both received the same escort treatment with the extra hosts walking with them to make sure no one tripped over Jack’s tail before wishing them both a nice night. Gabriel helped Jack back into the back seat of the jeep, making sure Jack was safe and secure before closing the door and heading to the driver’s side to open the door and climb in. He sighed happily as he brought his hand up to pat his filled up belly, Jack chuckling in the backseat at how ridiculous Gabriel was before he sat back up and buckled his belt.

“Man, that was awesome food, right, Jackie?”

“I don’t think I’ve had this much fun eating with someone since Torbjorn’s birthday and Reinhardt had the genius idea to make ‘boozepunch’ in the ice cooler!” Jack chuckled in amusement as he rested one elbow on the door as rested the side of his face in his palm. 

Gabriel groaned as he remembered how Reinhardt helped himself to the drink table and started pulling out all the beer and spirits they were trying to keep cold in the cooler. The big guy then dumped a punch of fruit punch directly into the ice-filled cooler before then uncapping all the vodka and such that they had to pour it into the concoction. Most of them ended up in the medbay the next morning, including Gabriel with his super soldier metabolism. Jack was spared since he had a ‘one drink only’ policy due to his hybrid nature.

“Shut up, Jack, that was not fun for the rest of us.”

Blonde bursted out laughing at that, Gabriel watching him through the rear-view mirror since he hadn’t started up the car yet, just wanting to enjoy the moment a bit longer with him. Gabriel loved the wrinkle lines on Jack’s face as he laughed, finding his heart beating rapidly while a smile lifted the corners of his face. 

“The things you mouth off when you’re drunk is hilarious, Gabe. You’re so affectionate and a total cuddler.” He snickered with a knowing grin on his face as he leaned away from the window to lock eyes with Gabriel in the rear-view mirror. 

Gabriel felt himself chuckle nervously, bringing a hand up to rub the back of his neck. He remembered the pictures of Jack and himself that Ana took of that night. Jack wearing the hoodie Gabriel pushed onto him, both of them napping on the couch with Jack’s tail coiled protectively around Gabe from the waist down while Gabe was snuggled under Jack’s chin. They fell asleep together like that which was a huge mistake since they ended up toppled over on top of Reinhardt in the morning when Gabe woke up to go puke. Yeah, not a good morning at all for them but it was a picture Gabriel had hidden away in his desk.

He hummed in agreement with Jack’s assessment though. “I wouldn’t mind a repeat of it. Without the spiked fruit punch, of course.” Gabriel chuckled.

Jack seemed to have a mischievous glint in his eyes at that confession. “Oh? Want to go to one of those hotels that rent by the hour?”

Gabriel just rolled his eyes at that. “Pretty sure there’s a decent place we can just rent the whole night, Jackie.” He remarked as he put his keys in the ignition and turned on the car. “Assuming that’s what you want to do, of course. You want a continental breakfast in the morning, right?”

Jack looked at Gabriel in surprise at that. “Really?”

“Yep. Just two guys watching movies and eating a shit ton of popcorn until they can be first in line for those pancakes you crave.” Gabriel smiled as he looked at Jack in the rearview mirror. “Sound like a plan?”

Jack’s blue eyes looked back at him with a deep appreciation as he gave Gabriel a gorgeous smile in return. “Yeah! I’m all up for it!”

**Author's Note:**

> Another entry into the snake!Jack series is finally published! Sorry for those I kept waiting! Please leave a review if you enjoyed it or not!


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